The lifting of objects in confined areas is often difficult. One particular area where space is limited is that in the raising of animals in a barn where the alleyways have a width which is kept to a minimum in order to maximize the space available for housing the animals. The alleyways are generally designed to be sufficient merely to allow transfer of walking animals from place to place and for the operator to walk.
A particular problem arises when an animal dies while in one of the pens since the animal must be lifted and transported from the pen to a position for disposal of the carcass.
Other lifting actions are necessary in animal husbandry barns for lifting equipment and other elements on an occasional basis.
A number of previous devices have been developed for transporting deceased animals in the relatively narrow confinements of an animal husbandry barn. Examples are as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,080 (Hedderich) issued Oct. 4, 1977 discloses a two wheel cart which can be manually pulled and includes a generally channel shaped slide panel onto which the animal carcass is pulled by a winch adjacent the handle. The device is relatively simple and thus has significant difficulty in lifting the very heavy animals which are often necessary to lift, bearing in mind that animals are becoming heavier due to enhanced breeding conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,115 (Orstad) issued Mar. 6, 1984 discloses a four wheel cart again having a winch so that the dead animal can be pulled onto a horizontal base of the cart by lifting the upper end of the animal. Again the device is relatively simple so that the amount of lifting force available is relatively low.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,884 (Maendel) issued Jul. 9, 1991 discloses a two wheel hand cart with sides while sliding the animal onto a support plate between the sides pulled by a hand winch at the upper part of the cart.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,749 (Woodbury) issued Aug. 12, 2003 discloses a four wheel cart with a slide panel extending downwardly to the ground so that the animal can be pulled over the slide panel onto the horizontal support surface of the cart and then the cart is simply pulled by a handle at the front which steers the front wheels. Again the lifting force available is limited.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,746 (Brost) issued Apr. 22, 2003 discloses an overhead winch carried on a track over the pens for lifting the animal vertically away from the pens and transporting the animal overhead. This arrangement is unsatisfactory since it requires overhead supports and sufficient room available between the pens and the ceiling so that it is highly limited in its ability to remove animals.